The Chronicles of Narnia

I just finished reading the last book in the Narnia series. This is the first time I've ever read the books and I must say that I was blown away by them. The stories include some of the most beautiful and haunting imagry I've read in a long time. What I found really interesting is that C.S. Lewis has essentially created a primer of Christianity for children which reads like an epic. I'm really glad I decided to read it now, because all the allegories, morality tales, and and symbolism is a lot more clear to me than if I had read it as a child. Harry Potter, with each tome in the series, doesn't even begin to compare to the power in these slim novels.

Lewis is extremely opinionated about several things in the stories. While he includes Fauns, Saytrs, and the pagan Greek god of wine Disonyous within the "good" kingdom of Narnia (The Christian Realm), the neighbors of Calormene (very clearly Islamic Arabs) with thier god, Tash, are most definately excluded and described as a most unsophisiticated, barbaric, scheming, ignoble, and warlike people. The Greek pagans are in, and the followers of Tash (Allah) are out.

Most of the stories however, focus on the key themes of faith, redemption, and the mind-boggling benevelent power of Aslan, the Great Lion (God and Christ). Lewis has created a new kind of Christian iconography though these stories, much more accessable and personable than the ones in the old and new Testiment. The Lion imagry is phenomenal. Aslan sings the world into existance, can move through time and space, heal all wounds, and defeat any foe. He opens gateways to other worlds, and lives in a country beyond the edge of the world. There is never any rejection of those who repent or redeem themselves, but only for those who refuse to see. Lewis never uses the words "Heaven" "Christ" or "God", but does goes on to say quietly that Aslan goes by another name in our world, and at the end of the world, all worlds link together.

I highly recommend re-reading or reading this series. Most of the books took me 1-3 days to read, so its pretty quick reading. Finding copies at the library is the tricky part. The people at Hayden Library are rolling their eyes at me at this point since I've been requesting the entire series from ASU's cirriculum stacks.

The weekend! Time to get down to work. Too much stuff to get done. It's almost ten, and I need to get on to studio.